B.

READING PRACTICE

Lessons in M&A
Difficulty level *

‘A risky business with a 70% plus failure-rate.’

Some 1,500 to 2,000 mergers and acquisitions are

completed per year worldwide, of which around half
are in the US. With deals worth astronomical sums,
($25bn for HP® Compaq, $35bn for Daimler-Chrysler,
and $77bn for Exxon-Mobil,) it comes as no surprise
that American executives are queuing up to go back to school for M&A classes. And although it’s
true that improving earnings and asset growth are not the only goals in takeovers, the fact that
many mergers result in a net loss of value suggests that schooling is sorely needed!

Every year hundreds of executives attend M&A courses at prestigious institutions from New York
to L.A. In these ‘open enrolment’ classes, the only condition of attendance is your, or rather your
company’s, ability to pay the fees: as much as $1,000 per day. At least that seems to demonstrate
that the B-schools know something about improving earnings!

So what do you learn in a week with America’s top finance professors? ‘We aim to equip
participants with techniques based on best practice in the key areas of merger activity
performance,’ says Ted Austin from the Delaney School of Business. ‘We cover all aspects of the
conception, planning, due diligence, negotiation and integration stages.’ Austin also draws on case
studies and guest speakers to illustrate some of the most common acquirer errors: over-valuation,
over-confidence, ‘under-communicating’, and underestimating the value of your newest assets -
the people in the company you’ve just bought. In the turmoil of integration, your best engineers
and managers may be more susceptible to attractive offers from the competition.

There is no doubt that M&A is a risky business. With a 70% plus failure-rate, you might think that
B-school professors would do well to discourage their students from launching takeover bids. But
you’d be wrong. Austin describes some of the other (good) reasons for mergers and acquisitions:
‘I suppose the most popular reasons mentioned in CEOs’ messages to shareholders are developing
synergies and making economies of scale – these are sometimes conveniently long-term goals!
Other objectives may be increasing market share; cross-selling, when for example a bank can sell
insurance to its existing clients; diversification, if a company is perceived to be too dependent on

32
a niche market; or quite simply taking on debt, the so-called poison pill, in order to make itself a
less attractive target for would-be buyers.’

The bankers, brokers and lawyers will be pleased to know there are still many good reasons to
merge. But what about the wrong reasons? ‘They mainly involve excessive pride or arrogance on
the part of management,’ says Austin. ‘Wanting to build too big an empire, too quickly, and
overextending the financial, commercial and human capacity of the organization. These courses
aim to help executives bring their CEOs back down to earth: learning to follow your head rather
than your heart is the key lesson in avoiding very expensive mistakes.’

Exercise 1: Read the first two paragraphs and underline the keywords. Then summarize
their main ideas.

Exercise 2: Decide if these statements are True (T) or False (F).

1. ___
T Every year over 500 mergers and acquisitions in the US fail to deliver increased value.
2. ___
F American executives are keen to get a share in multi-billion dollar takeovers.
các nhà quản trị
3. ___
F Executives wishing to attend M&A courses have to have an MBA.
4. ___
T Experienced managers tell attendees about typical mistakes they have made.
5. ___
F Because of the risks, business school professors do not recommend mergers.
6. ___
T Shareholders can often only judge the success of their CEO’s acquisitions policy several
years after a takeover.
7. ___
F Austin says that empire-building, diversification and increasing debt are the wrong reasons
for a merger.
8. ___
T According to Austin, many CEOs embark on mergers and acquisitions for irrational,
emotional reasons.

33
READING PASSAGE 2

A. VOCABULARY PRACTICE: Circle the noun which forms a word partnership with each
verb.

1. take a stake / a bid / an acquisition

2. make a merger / a stake / a bid
3. launch a bid / a share / a stake
4. target a company / a bid / a takeover
5. set up a share / a joint venture / a stake
6. make a merger / a joint venture / an acquisition
7. reject a bid / a stake / a share
8. sell a merger / a bid / a stake

B. READING PRACTICE

Spring in their steps

Difficulty level **

Some notes for company bosses out on the prowl

After a long hibernation, company bosses are beginning

to rediscover their animal spirits. The $10 billion-worth
of global mergers and acquisitions announced last month
was the highest for any month in over three years. There
are now lots of chief executives thinking about what
target they might attack in order to add growth and value
to their companies and glory to themselves. Although
they slowed down for a while because of the dot-com boom, they are once again on the prowl.

What should CEOs do to improve their chances of success in the coming rush to buy? First of all,
they should not worry too much about widely-quoted statistics suggesting that as many as three
out of every four deals have failed to create shareholder value for the acquiring company. The
figures are heavily influenced by the time period chosen and in any case, one out of four is not bad
when compared with the chances of getting a new business started. So they should keep looking
for good targets.

34
There was a time when top executives considered any type of business to be a good target. But in
the 1990s the idea of the conglomerate, the holding company with a diverse portfolio of businesses,
went out of fashion as some of its most prominent protagonists - CBS and Hanson Trust, for
example - faltered. Companies had found by then that they could add more value by concentrating
on their "core competence", although one of the most successful companies of that decade, General
Electric, was little more than an old-style conglomerate with a particularly fast-changing portfolio.

Brian Roberts, the man who built Comcast into a giant cable company, was always known for
concentrating on his core product - until his recent bid for Disney, that is. It is not yet clear whether
his bid is an opportunistic attempt to acquire and break up an undervalued firm, or whether he is
chasing the media industry's dream of combining entertainment content with distribution, a
strategy which has made fortunes for a few but which regularly proves the ruin of many big media
takeovers.

If vertical integration is Comcast's aim, then it will be imperative for Mr. Roberts to have a clear
plan of how to achieve that. For in the end, CEOs will be judged less for spotting a good target
than for digesting it well, a much more difficult task. The assumption will be that, if they are paying
a lot of money for a business, they know exactly what they want to do with it.

If CEOs wish to avoid some of the failures of the 1990s, they should not forget that they are subject
to the eternal tendency of business planners to be over-confident. It is a near certainty that, if asked,
almost 99 per cent of them would describe themselves as "above average" at making mergers and
acquisitions work. Sad as it may be, that can never be true.

They should also be aware that they will be powerfully influenced by the herd instinct, the feeling
that it is better to be wrong in large numbers than to be right alone. In the coming months they will
have to watch carefully to be sure that the competitive space into which the predator in front of
them is so joyfully leaping does not lie at the edge of a cliff.

Exercise 1: Read the first paragraph and underline the keywords. Then summarize its main
idea.

35
Exercise 2: Decide if these sentences are True (T) or False (F).

1. ___
F In the first paragraph, the author says that CEOs can no longer find targets for mergers

and acquisitions.
2. ___
T Studying facts and figures from the recent past won't necessarily help CEOs to form a

successful alliance.
3. ___
F The trend in the 1990s was for companies to build portfolios with diverse investments.

4. ___
F The author suggests that media mergers are always likely to improve share value.

5. ___
F CEOs need above all to find the right company to acquire.
thận trọng
6. ___ If business planners wish to avoid some of the errors of the 1990s, they should be prudent
when taking risks.

Exercise 3: The text contains several hunting and animal metaphors, e.g. on the prowl (looking
for victims). Find the metaphors in the text which mean:

1. period of sleeping through the winter (para 1)

2. instincts (para 1)

3. something to aim at (para 1)

4. one who hunts another (para 7)

READING PASSAGE 3

A. VOCABULARY PRACTICE: Complete the sentences with the correct form of the
words.

anticipate strategy acquire operate event

1. Operators should allot extra time to dealing with any _______________

an anticipated problems that may
arise in that time.
2. Part of the value of _______________
strategic planning is that it helps an organization recognize and
correct its mistakes.

36
3. A business with so much growth is sure to generate interest among potential
_______________.
acquirer

4. _______________
Operational control systems are designed to ensure that day-to-day actions are
consistent with established plans and objectives.
5. The government was _______________
eventually forced to bow to public pressure and reform the tax.

B. READING PRATICE

Dixons Carphone case study: The hard work after the merger fanfare
Difficulty level **

When Dixons Retail merged with Carphone Warehouse this year, the two electrical goods retailers
turned some of their outlets immediately into joint stores. They decided to mark out Carphone
areas with lighter coloured flooring, to distinguish them from the spaces occupied by the legacy
Dixons brands: Currys and PC World. But Mr. James. Dixons Carphone’s Chief Executive, now
worries the flooring may send the wrong message to staff and customers about a partnership he
hopes will be seamless.

It is just one tiny example of the many management challenges that groups face as they enter the
critical integration phase following a takeover or merger. Even the most promising unions can be
doomed by unanticipated culture clashes, problems with combining systems, or tension at the top
between executives who suddenly find they have to share responsibility for businesses they once
headed outright.

Almost exactly a year ago, Mr. James, who headed Dixons before the merger, met Andrew
Harrison, his opposite number at Carphone Warehouse to discuss how they could work better
together. Mr. Harrison says the deal discussions began with a vision of ‘what we wanted to achieve
and a vision of what the world was going’. It sounds corny, but could be a good start. Using a
sample of recent US and UIC transactions, Cass Business School found that mergers and
acquisitions based on clear strategic intent made up a far higher percentage of those that succeeded.

Dixons and Carphone had to accelerate when rumours of the impending deal leaked in February.
While the leak put short-term pressure on the two companies, it also allowed them to be more open
with staff and suppliers. The same Cass research shows the importance of open communication,
noting that two-thirds of successful acquirers shared more detailed information in public
announcements of their plans.

37
By August, the two companies had gathered their 2,000 Store Managers together for training and
to get to know each other. Individual stores took responsibility for briefing their own staff.

The retail infrastructure of the two companies is quite different, with Carphone staff trained to sell
mobile phone contracts, whereas Currys and PC World staff are more used to selling hardware. At
the moment, the staff are measured against separate in-store targets. But Mr. James believes 'selling
intangibles' will become more important for the merged group, as it moves further into service,
installation and maintenance of 'connected' homes and offices.

A less obvious, but potentially significant concern is how to bring different warehouses, stock
systems and information technology into line, to ensure, for instance, uniform pricing of the
accessories. While Dixons Carphone was able to decide not to rebrand, the merging of the two
companies’ logistical infrastructure is unavoidable – and risky. To differentiate between their
roles, Mr. Harrison takes responsibility for the growth businesses and innovation, while Mr. James
has day-to-day operational control of the group. Mr. Harrison also heads the single team that now
handles all global supplier relationships.

As the same former Dixons executive points out, whether the combined group can win even better
terms from suppliers than Dixons and Carphone did separately will be critical to the deal’s success.

However, in many mergers of equals, one side eventually emerges dominant. The difference in
corporate mergers is that plenty of people, including staff, shareholders and customers, mind a
great deal if the honeymoon period eventually gives way to chaos and acrimony.

Exercise 1: Read the first two paragraphs and underline the keywords. Then summarize
their main ideas.

Exercise 2: Choose the correct answers.

1. When the two companies merged,

A. all the stores included both companies.
B. staff worked in different colour-coded areas.
C. Mr. lames had anticipated problems with the colour coding.
D. staff and customers received a personal message from the CEO.

38
2. According to the article, when companies merge
A. few problems occur in the early stages.
B. the sharing of responsibility must be clarified.
C. top executives find it easier than the rest of the staff.
D. bosses can often underestimate potential difficulties.

3. Before the Dixons Carphone merger, senior managers

A. discussed the sharing of power.
B. studied various mergers around the world.
C. agreed on future objectives.
D. based their plans on each company's current vision.

4. According to the fourth paragraph, companies planning to merge should

A. share information with suppliers.
B. avoid rumours getting out about the merger at all costs.
C. introduce staff to each other at the earliest point.
D. ensure that training is provided for all staff.

5. Dixons and Carphone staff

A. are working towards the same goals.
B. need to focus on selling their own company’s products.
C. are being trained to sell each other's products.
D. have different experience and skills.

6. One of the main problems facing Dixons and Carphone now is

A. the fact that prices have increased.
B. the integration of their distribution centres.
C. the two top executives are unable to share responsibility.
D. negotiating better deals with global suppliers.

39
Exercise 3: Complete the sentences with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the
passage.

1. Mergers may turn out to be a great failure due to problems associated with _______________,
counter classic

system differences, or separation of powers.

2. A study suggests that with _______________
strategic intend being set out, mergers and takeovers are likely
to thrive.
3. As the news of Dixons-Carphone merger leaked out, the two companies faced
_______________
pressure yet enjoyed some benefit.
4. It should be ensured that the _______________
prices of the electrical goods was unvaried by bridging
the logistical infrastructure gap.

READING PASSAGE 4

A. VOCABULARY PRACTICE: Match the words with the appropriate definitions.

1. to throw sand in each other’s faces D A. to be in charge

2. to climb to the top of the corporate B. a serious disagreement, or ending of a business

ladder B relationship between directors of the board

3. a boardroom bust-up E C. to accept playing a less prominent role, to take

a less direct or hands-on role

4. in the driving seat A D. to combat, to fight with (perhaps suggesting a

childish fight), to try to stop the other one from
advancing

5. to take a back seat C E. a place where large amounts of rubbish are

buried in the ground

40
B. READING PRACTICE

When egos collide

Difficulty level ***

In the acquisition jungle, alpha males are deal-breakers.

Perhaps business schools should add anthropology to the curriculum; the parallels between the
behaviour of corporate executives and that of great apes are uncanny. The spectacular collapse of
the supposed alliance of drug giants GlaxoWellcome and SmithKline Beecham is a textbook
example.

There was a clear business logic to the union of the two pharmaceuticals giants. The deal gave the
companies a drugs research and development budget more than twice the size of their closest rivals,
Novartis and Merck, and the combination of their complementary research 20 technologies could
have left them streets ahead of the competition; cost-cutting alone could have saved $1 bn. But
because these two great beasts of the jungle (the CEOs of the corporations) chose to throw sand in
each other’s faces, the deal is off, at least for now.

Corporate egos cause problems but they seem to be inevitable in a business culture that prizes
drive, determination and leadership above all. Having the strength of personality and the ability to
outmanoeuvre others is a fundamental prerequisite to climb to the top of the corporate ladder. So
with a power-hungry alpha male at the top of each company, it is not surprising that every time a
mega-merger is announced, there’s a high probability of a boardroom bust-up. Nicholas Bates,
head of Human Resources Management at the European Business School, says many senior
businessmen actually go off the top of the scale on personality tests. ‘Some of them are almost
psycho-pathological and would have no hesitation taking everyone down with them. Some are
verging on paranoid.’ Nevertheless these are precisely the sorts of personalities that companies
want because they can transform a business; the problems only appear when they have to get
together with peers in their organisation who don't share their views. Then clashes are inevitable.

Europe’s most spectacular and public bust-up was between automotive giants Volvo and Renault.
In September 1993 Volvo and Renault announced they were to tie the knot, with Volvo holding a
minority 35% stake. However, three months later Volvo shareholders and senior management
rejected the marriage plans because of concerns that the deal undervalued Volvo, and was turning
into a Renault takeover, without Renault paying the acquisition premium. Simmering resentment
over chairman Pehr Gyllenhammer’s dictatorial management style at Volvo added spice to the

41
management revolt. The divorce is reputed to have cost Volvo several hundred million dollars and
forced the resignation of Gyllenhammer after more than two decades in the driving seat. Egos play
such a large role when two giant corporations come together that it is hard to make them work
unless one personality is prepared to take a back seat or step down. The $26 bn marriage between
Swiss giants Ciba and Sandoz to form Novartis in 1996 is often held up as a textbook example of
how mega-mergers can work. It is successful, but much of that success is dependent on the fact
that key personnel were ready for retirement, or were prepared to relinquish old roles in favour of
new opportunities in other scenarios.

Compromises is essential if mergers between two powerful corporations are to work to the
advantage of both parties and their shareholders. Otherwise friendly discussions break down and
can easily turn into all-out war. In the corporate jungle, the question is now whether the imperatives
of shareholders can control the egos of managers, to force through deals that deliver them the
financial return they expect. This is where independent directors ought to play a part, although
they rarely do.

Exercise 1: Read the first paragraph and underline the keywords. Then summarize its main
idea.

Exercise 2: Complete the summary with the words and phrases from the box.

financial personalities desires give up pharmaceutical

take over go through compromises paranoid discussions

The alliance between GlaxoWellcome and SmithKline Beecham would have brought considerable
1_______________
financial advantages over their competitors. However, the deal did not
2_______________
go through because the CEOs of the companies failed to agree. Nicholas Bates explains
that many senior businesspeople find it difficult to get along with their peers because they have
such strong and sometimes almost ‘psycho-pathological’ 3_______________.
personalities

In another example, the author points out that the Ciba-Sandoz merger worked because senior
personnel were, either ready for retirement or willing to 4_______________
give up their posts for other
ones. A successful merger is possible if CEOs are willing to make the necessary

42
5_______________
compromises to bring about the most advantages for their shareholders. This means that
CEOs must put the company's interests before their personal 6_______________
desires for power.

Exercise 3: Find the words or phrases in the reading passage that matches the definition below.

1. The dominant male animal or person in a group. (sub-heading) alpha

2. The scientific study of people, their societies, cultures etc. (para 1)
3. Much better than someone or something else (para 2)
4. To gain an advantage by using cleverer or more skillful plans or methods (para 3)
5. To be very close to a harmful or extreme state (para 3)
6. A way of ending an argument in which both people or groups accept that they cannot have
everything they want (para 5) compromises

READING PASSAGE 5

A. VOCABULARY PRACTICE: Complete the words using the provided definitions.

1. economies of sc_l_ Cost advantages occurring when a company increases their scale
of production and becomes more efficient, resulting in a decreased
cost-per-unit

2. s_o_k sw_p deal The exchange of one equity-based asset for another, where, during
stock swap
the merger or acquisition, the swap provides an opportunity to pay
with stock rather than with cash

3. _estab_li_ing effect An effect on an economic situation, making it less strong or safe,

by causing changes and problems

4. j_in_ venture A business arrangement in which two or more parties agree to pool
join
their resources to accomplish a specific task.

5. der_gul_tio_ The removal of government rules and controls from some types of
deragulation
business activity

43
B. READING PRACTICE

Business file: The magic of the merger

Difficulty level **

1998 was undoubtedly the year of the merger. More companies than ever before joined together
in deals that totalled $2.25 trillion and created the world's largest ever bank and the world’s biggest
oil company. Faced with plummeting oil prices, oil giants Eason and Mobil sought to achieve
economies of scale through a $250bn merger.

There are several factors behind the increase in mergers and acquisitions. Firstly, the accelerated
rote of globalisation has left companies desperately seeking overseas acquisitions in order to
remain competitive. Deutsche Bank bought its way into the US with its takeover of Bankers Trust,
whilst Siemens hopes that its acquisition of Matra, the French defence group, will allow it to gain
access to France's railway business, which is dominated by Alstom, the Anglo-French consortium.

Another factor behind the increase in merger activity is the record performance of stock markets,
which has enabled companies to finance major acquisitions on the strength of their inflated share
prices. Earlier this year Vodafone, the UK mobile telephone operator, acquired its US counterpart
AirTouch by making AirTouch shareholders a cash and stock swap offer worth a total of $62bn.
The deal created Vodafone AirTouch, the world’s largest mobile telecoms group with over 29m
customers.

The European banking sector is also seeing a trend towards consolidation, a process accelerated
by deregulation, overcapacity and the arrival of the single European currency.

New technology is also making it easier for companies to diversify as different industries come to
rely on common technologies. Microsoft, for instance, is busily diversifying into cable and mobile
telecommunications as well as WebTV. The US software giant has a $5bn equity stake in AT&T,
which recently bought Media One for $57bn. Under the deal, Microsoft will succeed in introducing
its recently-launched cable television software into millions of homes in the US and UK.

Not all mergers, however, are the result of global economic trends, political change or
technological innovation. BMW’s takeover of the Rover Group injected much needed investment
into the struggling UK car manufacturer whilst extending BMW’s product range. And when the
UK pharmaceutical firm Zeneca merged with Swedish drug company Astra, the new company
started life with strong combined R&D capabilities, further strengthened by the world’s best
selling drug Losec in its portfolio of products.

44
Despite all these potential benefits and their promise of competitive advantage, mergers and
acquisitions are not risk-free ventures. Such alliances are more than just financial agreements; they
also involve the coming together of different corporate and, in many cases, national cultures. This
can have a destabilising effect on a workforce and may mean projected efficiencies are not
delivered. Daimler and Chrysler, for example, face the challenge of integrating two very different
corporate and notional cultures.

A further destabilising effect is the prospect of redundancies as companies look to reduce their
payroll by restructuring duplicated functions such as marketing and administration. Although
shareholders are lured by such short-term savings, there is little evidence to show that mergers and
acquisitions actually add long-term value to company performance.

Exercise: Choose the correct answers.

1. Exxon and Mobil merged in order to

A. enter new overseas markets.
B. reduce costs and improve margins.
C. create the world’s biggest company.
D. undercut competitors’ prices.

2. Vodafone was able to acquire AirTouch by

A. selling highly-valued shares to customers.
B. obtaining a loan based on its share value.
C. exchanging shares as part of the deal.
D. buying under-valued AirTouch shares.

3. What is Microsoft's interest in AT&T’s acquisition of Media One?

A. It will raise Microsoft's equity stake in AT&T.
B. It will give Microsoft access to new technologies.
C. It will increase the size of Microsoft's core market.
D. It will help Microsoft break into new markets.

45
4. Why was the BMW takeover in Rover’s interests?
A. Rover was able to raise capital.
B. It extended Rover's product range.
C. Rover gained new distribution channels.
D. It reduced Rover's operating costs.

5. What is the main challenge facing Daimler and Chrysler?

A. Customers may not want to buy foreign products.
B. Workforce reductions could affect delivery times.
C. Their managers might not work together effectively.
D. The cost of the merger will outweigh any savings.

6. Merged companies can usually increase short-term profits by

A. cutting their combined labour costs.
B. boosting the company's productivity.
C. using a single marketing campaign.
D. selling their shares at a high price.

46
 UNIT 4 - ADVERTISING

Reading strategy: Distinguishing facts from opinions

 A fact is a statement that is true and can be proven true.
 An opinion usually expresses a personal judgment or gives a position about something.

READING PASSAGE 1

A. VOCABULARY PRACTICE: These following words in bold can be found in the text.
Choose the best answers to complete the sentences.

1. The project is virtually finished, so there's _______________ to do.

A. not much
B. still a lot
2. When something is painted a subtle color, you _______________ notice it.
A. immediately
B. hardly
3. A prominent company is usually _______________.
A. successful
B. unsuccessful
4. One reason a store’s sign might not be visible is that _______________.
A. it has misspelled words
B. it is too small
5. A man sits next to you. One way to ignore him is to _______________.
A. start talking to him
B. pretend he is not there
6. Which is a more interactive activity?
A. Reading a book.
B. Discussing a book with friends.
7. If you get access to a building, you _______________.
A. are allowed to enter it
B. must leave it quickly

47
 8. If you like a website's content, you like its _______________.
A. words and pictures
B. design

B. READING PRACTICE

Ads are everywhere!

Difficulty Level *

Would you believe that the average person sees nearly 3,000 ads every day? That seems
unbelievable, but advertising has become so common that ads are virtually everywhere we look.
Furthermore, most advertisements today don't seem like advertising. Newspapers and television
are no longer the only way for companies to reach their target audience. Today, advertisers are far
more subtle in their selling.

Take a look: your clothes may have a brand name or logo on them. Many designer brands like
Gucci and Louis Vuitton display their logo prominently on their clothes and bags. Branding is also
very important for big sports companies and professional sports teams. For example, Nike has
spent hundreds of millions of dollars creating and promoting their instantly recognizable "swoosh"
logo.

Your favorite forms of entertainment are also filled with ads. Companies actively, seek to sponsor
concerts and TV shows: for example, the Coca-Cola Company sponsored American Idol, one of
the most popular shows on American television, since its first season. Similarly, many sports
tournaments would be impossible to hold if not for money given by sponsors, who want their ads
clearly visible in stadiums. In movies, you'll see characters driving a particular brand of car, or
eating a popular snack, because companies pay for their products to be there. In the James Bond
film Casino Royale, car manufacturer Ford paid about $22 million for James Bond to drive one of
its cars – for only three minutes! The problem for advertisers is that people have learned to ignore
traditional advertising, such as TV ads and billboards. Advertisers must find new ways to get the
public to notice them – and continue noticing them. The key word now is "engagement":
companies are trying to create deeper, more interactive experiences, which could be anything from
contests to parties to charity runs, and link the experience with the brand. Companies have starting
using the Internet to reach a wider audience. For example, brand websites can be accessed by
anyone, anywhere. Advertisers are using social networking sites like Facebook to post videos and

48
entertaining stories that feature the company’s products. Their goal is for people to share these
posts with their friends, and eventually reach millions of people. The energy drink company Red
Bull has been very successful in creating online content that viewers respond to. By sponsoring
and making short films focused on extreme sports like skateboarding and surfing, Red Bull has
attracted more than hundreds of millions of views on its YouTube channel. Advertisers are finding
new and different ways to grab our attention. As a results, ads are getting more creative. Instead
of telling us what is so special about a product, advertisers are making products part of our lives.

Exercise 1: Choose the correct answer.

1. The passage mentions clothing in paragraph 2 because

A. consumers pay extra for clothing with logos
B. clothing can be a way to advertise a product
C. advertising on t-shirts does not work

2. Which best describes what the writer means by "engagement"?

A. A company puts an advertisement in the newspaper.
B. A company pays a famous actor to appear in a television commercial.
C. A company organizes and funds local sporting events.

3. According to the passage, what is the main problem advertisers face today?
A. Advertising costs too much money.
B. People do not notice advertisements anymore.
C. People do not read newspapers or watch TV anymore.

Exercise 2: Circle the correct answers to complete the following sentences.

1. Advertisers have (fewer / more) ways to reach consumers now.

2. In modern advertising, we (know/don’t know) when we're being sold to.
3. Branding involves companies creating (memorable logos / better products).
4. (Ford / The movie studio) paid to have a specific car used in a James Bond movie.
5. Companies use social network sites like Facebook so that people can (share information about
the brand / buy their product directly).
6. Red Bull sponsors short films about (energy drinks/skateboarding).

49
Exercise 3: Read the text again and decide if the following statements are Facts (F) or
Opinions (O).

F/O

1. The average person sees nearly 3,000 ads every day. _____

2. Today, advertisers are far more subtle in their selling. _____

3. Many designer brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton display their logo on their clothes
and bags. _____

4. Nike has spent hundreds of millions of dollars creating and promoting their logo. _____

5. The Coca-Cola Company sponsored American Idol since its first season. _____

6. The energy drink company Red Bull has been very successful in creating online
content that viewers respond to. _____

7. Red Bull has attracted more than hundreds of millions of views on its YouTube
channel. _____

8. Ads are getting more creative. _____

Exercise 4: Read the sentences. Underline the part of each sentence that makes it an opinion.

1. It is unbelievable that the average person sees nearly 3,000 ads every day.
2. Branding is also very important for big sports companies and professional sports teams.
3. American Idol is one of the most popular shows on American television.
4. Advertisers must find new ways to get the public to notice their advertisements.
5. Companies are trying to create deeper, more interactive experiences.

READING PASSAGE 2

A. VOCABULARY PRACTICE

Exercise 1: Match the words with their definitions. Use dictionary if necessary.

1. to manipulate A. to show the best qualities or parts of something

2. to corrupt B. to have control over a place or a person, or to be the most
3. to showcase important person or thing

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4. aspiration C. an amount which is more than usual
5. consistency D. to control something or someone to your advantage, often
6. premium (noun) unfairly or dishonestly
7. to bombard E. something that you hope to achieve
8. veteran (noun) F. to take responsibility
9. pitch (noun) G. to direct so many things at someone that they find it difficult to
10. cynical deal with them
11. to take the blame H. when someone or something always behaves or performs in a
12. to dominate similar way
I. believing that people are only interested in themselves and are
not sincere
J. to make someone or something become dishonest or immoral
K. a person who has had a lot of experience of a particular activity
L. a speech or act which attempts to persuade someone to buy or do
something

Exercise 2: Complete the sentences with the correct forms of the words in Exercise 1.

1. They work as a group - no one person is allowed to _______________.

2. The children _______________ her with questions.
3. Throughout her career she has very successfully _______________ the media.
4. If anything goes wrong, I'll _______________.
5. The man in the shop gave me his sales _______________ about quality and reliability.
6. The study claimed that violence on television _______________ the minds of children.
7. The main aim of the exhibition is to _______________ British design.
8. I've never had any political _______________.
9. She is a _______________ of many election campaigns.
10. It's important to show some _______________ in your work.
11. I've always been deeply _______________ about politicians
12. We're willing to pay a _______________ for the best location.

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B. READING PRACTICE

Money can buy you love

Difficulty Level **

Are we being manipulated into buying brands?

1. BRANDS are accused of all sorts of evils,

from threatening our health and destroying
our environment to corrupting our children.
Brands are so powerful, it is said, that they
force us to look alike, eat alike and be alike.
2. This grim picture has been made popular by
many recent anti-branding books. The
argument has been most forcefully stated in Naomi Klein's book No Logo: Taking Aim at the
Brand Bullies. Its argument runs something like this. In the new global economy, brands
represent a huge portion of the value of a company and, increasingly, its biggest source of
profits. So companies are switching from showcasing product features to marketing aspirations
and the dream of a more exciting lifestyle.
3. Historically, building a brand was rather simple. A logo was a straightforward guarantee of
quality and consistency, or it was a signal that a product was something new. For that,
consumers were prepared to pay a premium. Building a brand nationally required little more
than an occasional advertisement on a handful of television or radio stations showing how the
product tasted better or drove faster. There was little regulation. It was easy for brands such as
Coca-Cola, Kodak and Marlboro to become hugely powerful. Because shopping was still a local
business and competition limited, a successful brand could maintain its lead and high prices for
years. A strong brand acted as an effective barrier to entry for competing products.
4. Consumers are now bombarded with choices. They are also harder to reach. They are busier,
more distracted and have more media to choose from. They are ‘commercials veterans’
experiencing up to 1,500 pitches a day. They are more cynical than ever about marketing and
less responsive to messages to buy. Jonathan Bond and Richard Kirshenbaum, authors of Under
The Radar – Talking To Today's Cynical Consumers, say ‘some of the most cynical consumers
are the young.’ Nearly half of all US college students have taken marketing courses and ‘know
the enemy’. For them, ‘shooting down advertising has become a kind of sport.’

52
5. Marketers have to take some of the blame. While consumers have changed beyond recognition,
marketing has not. Even in the USA, home to nine of the world’s ten most valuable brands, it
can be a shockingly old-fashioned business. Marketing theory is still largely based on the days
when Procter & Gamble’s brands dominated the USA, and its advertising agencies wrote the
rules. Those rules focused on the product and where to sell it, not the customer. The new
marketing approach is to develop a brand not a product – to sell a lifestyle or a personality, to
appeal to emotions. (It is a much harder task than describing the features and benefits of a
product.) However, brands of the future will have to stand for all of this and more. Not only
will they need to be a stamp of product quality and a promise of a more desirable lifestyle but
they will also have to project an image of social responsibility.

Exercise 1: Read the text and decide which of the below views is closest to that of the author.

1. Marketing transforms brands, making them stand for things that they just don’t stand for. They
don’t deliver.’ – Naomi Klein author of No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.
2. ‘Brands provide us with beliefs. They define who we are.’ Wally Olins, a corporate identity
consultant.

Exercise 2: Read the text again and match the headings i–vi with paragraphs 1-5. There is
one extra heading.

List of headings

1. Paragraph 1 i. Brands past

2. Paragraph 2 ii. Advertising brands
3. Paragraph 3 iii. The new consumers
4. Paragraph 4 iv. Guilty
5. Paragraph 5 v. The case against brands
vi. The importance of brands

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Exercise 3: Read Paragraph 3 again. Decide if the following statements are True (T) or False
(F)?

1. ___ It was relatively easy in the past to create a new brand.

2. ___ Buying a branded product did not cost customers more.
3. ___ Brands were developed for the international market.
4. ___ The government closely controlled the markets at home.
5. ___ Brands deterred other companies from entering the market.

Exercise 4: Read the text again and decide if the following statements are Facts (F) or
Opinions (O).

F/O

1. Brands are so powerful that they force us to look alike, eat alike and be alike. _____

2. In the new global economy, brands create the biggest source of profits for a company. _____

3. Companies are switching from showcasing product features to marketing aspirations

and the dream of a more exciting lifestyle. _____

4. ‘Commercials veterans’ can experience up to 1,500 pitches a day. _____

5. It was easy for brands such as Coca-Cola, Kodak and Marlboro to become hugely
powerful. _____

6. Nearly half of all US college students have taken marketing courses. _____

7. The USA is home to nine of the world’s ten most valuable brands. _____

8. It is a much harder task than describing the features and benefits of a product. _____

Exercise 5: Read the sentences. Underline the part of each sentence that makes it an opinion.

1. The argument has been most forcefully stated in Naomi Klein's book No Logo: Taking Aim at
the Brand Bullies.
2. In the new global economy, brands represent a huge portion of the value of a company.
3. Building a brand was rather simple.
4. A strong brand acted as an effective barrier to entry for competing products.
5. Consumers are harder to reach.
6. They are more cynical than ever about marketing and less responsive to messages to buy.

54
7. Marketing in the USA can be a shockingly old-fashioned business.

READING PASSAGE 3

A. VOCABULARY PRACTICE

Exercise 1: Match the words with their closest synonyms.

Words Synonyms

1. exhibitions A. featuring a product in a film or TV programme

2. special offers
3. product placement
4. direct mail
5. public relations
6. telemarketing
B. communicating with the press
C. trade fairs and shows
D. promotional price reductions
E. selling to customers over the phone
F. publicity material delivered to homes

Exercise 2: Complete the collocations below with the following verbs and nouns. Use
collocation dictionary if necessary.

Verbs run launch make sponsor

Nouns brand audience image

1. To target a(n )_______________ 5. To project a(n) _______________

2. To _______________ a new campaign 6. To endorse a(n) _______________
3. To _______________ an advert in the press 7. To _______________ a commercial
4. To _______________ a sports event

Exercise 3: Complete the text with the appropriate form of the collocations above.

Signing a celebrity and using their star status to 1 endorse a brand is one of the standard advertising
techniques. Tag Heuer, the watchmaker which 2_______________ a number of
_______________ currently has Tiger Woods under contract. Nicole Kidman has
3_______________ for Chanel No.5, which has been shown around the world. But choosing the

55
celebrity who will 4_______________ exactly the right _______________ is not always so easy,
as several companies have found out. What happens when a company is about to
5_______________ a new _______________ featuring a celebrity and it suddenly finds out that
he or she is accused of a criminal offence? While there is no doubt that most celebrity
endorsements do increase sales, more and more advertisers are turning to other, less risky ways or
6_______________ the _______________ that they want to reach.

B. READING PRACTICE

The harder hard sell

Difficulty level **

……………………………………………………

1. It was Lord Leverhulme, the British soap pioneer, who is said to have complained that he
knew half of his advertising budget was wasted but didn’t know which half. The real effects
of advertising have become more measurable, exposing another, potentially more horrible, truth
for the industry: in some cases, it can be a lot more than half of the budget that is going down
the drain.
2. The advertising industry is passing through one of the most disorienting periods in its
history. This is due to a combination of long-term changes, such as the growing diversity of
media and the arrival of new technologies, notably the internet. With better-informed
consumers, the result is that some of the traditional methods of advertising and marketing
simply no longer work.

The media are the message

3. But spending on advertising is up again and is expected to grow this year by 4.7 percent to
$343 billion. How will the money be spent? There are plenty of alternatives to straightforward
advertising. They range from public relations to direct mail and include consumer promotions,
such as special offers, in-store displays, business-to-business promotions (like paying a
retailer for shelf space), telemarketing, exhibitions, sponsoring events, product placements
and more. These have become such an inseparable part of the industry that big agencies are now
willing to provide most of them.
4. As ever, the debate in the industry centres on the best way to achieve results. Is it more cost-
effective, for instance, to use a public relations agency to invite a journalist out to lunch and

56
 persuade him to write about a product than to pay for a display ad in that journalist’s newspaper?
Should you launch a new car with glossy magazine ads, or – as some car makers now do –
simply park demonstration models in shopping malls and motorway service stations? And
is it better to buy a series of ads on a specialist cable TV channel or splurge $2.2m on a
single 30-second commercial during this year's Super Bowl?

Net sales

5. Such decisions are ever harder to make. For a start, people are spending less time reading
newspapers and magazines, but are going to the cinema more, listening to more radio and
turning in ever-increasing numbers to a new medium, the Internet (see chart 1). No one knows
just how important the internet will eventually be as an advertising medium. Some advertisers
think it will be a highly cost-effective way of reaching certain groups of consumers. But not
everyone uses the Internet, and nor is it seen as being particularly good at building brands. So
far, the Internet accounts for only a tiny slice of the overall advertising pie (see chart 2),
although its share has begun to grow rapidly.
6. Despite all of these new developments, many in the advertising business remain confident.
Rupert Howell, chairman of the London arm of McCann Erickson, points out that TV never
killed radio, which in turn never killed newspapers. They did pose huge creative challenges,
but that’s OK, he maintains: ‘The advertising industry is relentlessly inventive; that’s what we
do.’

Chart 1 - Use of US media, hours per person, per year

1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Radio Cable & satellite TV Broadcast TV

Consumer Internet Daily newspapers Linear (Radio)

57
 Chart 2- US advertising spend (billion $)
Internet, 3% Outdoor, 2% Business papers,
2%

Magazines, 6%

Direct mail, 25%

Cable TV, 9%

Radio, 9%

Newspapers,…
Television, 21%

Exercise 1: Read the text. Choose the best sub-heading for the beginning of the text.

A. The advertising industry is going through a crisis period – sales are down and times are hard.

B. The traditional media are finally attracting a new younger audience and more advertisers as a
result.

C. More people are rejecting traditional sales messages, presenting the ad industry with big
challenges.

Exercise 2: The following questions refer to information given in paragraphs 1–6. In which
paragraphs can you find the answers to the following questions?

1. Why have some forms of advertising become ineffective?  paragraph 2

2. What are the two weaknesses of the Internet as an advertising medium?

3. What new services have advertising agencies started to offer?

4. What happened in the past when new advertising media appeared?

5. How much does it cost to advertise at peak viewing times in the USA?

6. What proportion of the money spent on advertising may be wasted?

58
Exercise 3: Look at the charts and decide if the following statements are True (T) or False
(F)?

1. Americans are spending more time reading newspapers.

2. Broadcast television is more popular than satellite and cable TV.

3. The number of radio listeners has increased significantly.

4. Internet usage doubled during the period from 2000 to 2003.

5. Direct mail and newspapers were the two media on which advertisers spent the most.

6. In the print media, business papers were the most popular medium with advertisers.

7. In broadcasting, television accounted for a little over double the amount spent on radio.

Exercise 4: Read the following statements and decide whether they are Facts (F) or Opinions
(O).

F/O

1. It is said that Lord Leverhulme, the British soap pioneer, complained that he knew
_____
half of his advertising budget was wasted.

2. The real effects of advertising have become more measurable, exposing another,
potentially more horrible, truth for the industry. _____

3. It can be a lot more than half of the budget that is going down the drain. _____

4. Spending on advertising is expected to grow this year by 4.7 percent to $343 billion. _____

5. Such decisions are ever harder to make. _____

6. So far, the Internet accounts for only a tiny slice of the overall advertising pie. _____

7. Not everyone uses the Internet. _____

8. The Internet is not seen as being particularly good at building brands. _____

Exercise 5: Read the sentences. Underline the part of each sentence that makes it an opinion.

1. The advertising industry is passing through one of the most disorienting periods in its history.

59
2. It is more effective to use a public relations agency to invite a journalist out to lunch and
persuade him to write about a product than to pay for a display ad in that journalist’s newspaper.
3. The Internet will eventually be as important as an advertising medium.
4. It is better to buy a series of ads on a specialist cable TV channel.
5. They did pose huge creative challenges.
6. The advertising industry is relentlessly inventive.

READING PASSAGE 4

A. VOCABULARY PRACTICE

Exercise 1: Match the words 1–6 to the words A–F to make word partnerships. Use
collocation dictionary if necessary.

1. Energy A. teasing

2. Eye B. saving

3. Thirst C. watering

4. Money D. watching

5. Mouth E. quenching

6. Brain F. saving

Exercise 2: Which of the word partnerships in Exercise 1 would you use to describe these
products?

1. A soft drink 1.

2. A fruit bar 2.

3. A computer quiz game 3.

4. A light bulb 4.

5. A range of smart clothing 5.

6. A range of supermarket own-brand products.6.

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B. READING PRACTICE

What makes Nike’s advertising tick?

Difficulty Level ***

Phil Knight, the co-founder and former Chief Executive of Nike, prefers to let his superstar athletes
and advertisements do his talking for him. Named Advertiser of the Year at the 50th Cannes
International Advertising Festival, he is the first person to win the award twice.

Knight has an absolutely clear and committed strategy to use celebrity athlete endorsement. He
describes it as one part of the ‘three-legged stool’ which lies behind Nike’s phenomenal growth
since the early 1980s, with the other two being product design and advertising.

He has built Nike’s expansion into sport after sport from its athletics roots on the back of sporting
masters: Carl Lewis on the track; tennis’s Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, Tiger Woods, who
led Nike into golf; Ronaldo and the Brazilian national football team; and the basketball star,
Michael Jordan, who famously rescued the company.

From the beginning, Nike has been prepared to take a gamble on sporting bad boys others would
not touch: Andre Agassi springs to mind. It was a strategy that began with Ilie Nastase, the original
tennis bad boy. The Romanian had the quality that has come to represent Nike and its advertising:
attitude.

After extraordinary growth, Nike became the number one trainer manufacturer in the US. But
Knight admits the company then lost its way as it failed to cope with its success. It experimented
unsuccessfully with expansion into non-athletic shoes, and lost its number one position to Reebok
in 1986.

Knight bet the future of the company on a new feature: a new air technology inside the trainer. He
launched the product with a David Fincher – directed ad which used the Beatles track Revolution,
and then marketed the Air Jordan brand on the back of Michael Jordan. Sales took off and the rest
is history.

This brings us to the subject of globalization and question of how American the brand can be. Nike
uses a mix 40 of global ad campaigns such as ‘good v evil’ and local advertising such as its famous
poster campaigns in the UK.

During a 21-year partnership with the agency Wieden and Kennedy, Nike has created some of the
world’s most attention-grabbing advertising: for example, the Nike ‘good vs evil’ campaign and

61
two advertisements both for World Cups and the ad ‘tag’, last year’s Cannes grand prix winner.
Other famous ads star Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi playing in the streets of Manhattan; Tiger
Woods playing ‘keepy-uppy’ with a golf ball; and Brazil’s team playing soccer at the airport
terminal.

It is a remarkable body of work, both in its variety, daring and consistent originality. At Nike there
is a streamlined decision-making process that gives marketing directors real power. They do not
rely on market research pre-testing which often reduces the impact of more experimental
commercials. There is also a long relationship with one of the world’s best ad agencies, and what
Wieden describes as ‘an honesty about sport’. Things only happen in Nike ads that sportsmen and
women can really do.

‘My number one advertising principle – if I have one – is to wake up the consumer,’ concludes
Knight, with an absolute conviction that is unique among modern-day chief executives. ‘We have
a high-risk strategy on advertising. When it works, it is more interesting. There really is no
formula.’

Exercise 1: Read the article and complete the table.

Sport Celebrities

1. Athletics Carl Lewis

2.

3.

4.

5.

Exercise 2: Answer the following questions.

1. According to Phil Knight, what are the three factors which have led to the huge success of Nike?
2. Why did Nike lose market share in the mid-1980s?
3. Which innovation saved the company?
4. Which celebrity saved the company?

62
5. What is Phil Knight’s key idea about advertising?

Exercise 3: Decide whether the following statements are True (T) or False (F).

1. ___ Nike had been awarded ‘Advertiser of the Year’ twice before the 50th Cannes International
Advertising Festival.
2. ___ Nike uses a combination of different advertising activities.
3. ___ Nike believes market research pre-testing is very important.
4. ___ A lot of computer tricks are used in Nike ads.

Exercise 4: Read the following statements and decide whether they are Facts (F) or Opinions
(O).

F/O

1. Phil Knight, the co-founder and former Chief Executive of Nike, prefers to let his
superstar athletes and advertisements do his talking for him. _____

2. Named Advertiser of the Year at the 50th Cannes International Advertising Festival,
he is the first person to win the award twice. _____

3. Nike uses a mix 40 of global ad campaigns such as ‘good v evil’ and local advertising
such as its famous poster campaigns in the UK. _____

4. It is a remarkable body of work, both in its variety, daring and consistent originality. _____

5. When it works, it is more interesting. _____

READING PASSAGE 5

A. VOCABULARY PRACTICE: Match the words with the definitions.

Word Definition

1. to call upon A. very common or frequent

2. to save the day B. the quality of being real or true

3. single-handedly C. to do something that prevents a likely defeat or failure

63
 4. to improvise D. to ask or demand that somebody do something

5. to pitch E. to try to persuade somebody to buy something

6. rife F. a person whose behaviour is unusual and strange

7. oddball G. without any help from anyone else

8. authenticity H. to make or do something using whatever is available

B. READING PRACTICE

Mad Men: Fact or fiction in the world of advertising today?

Difficulty Level ***
Many people have been introduced to the world of
advertising through the American drama series Mad
Men, which follows the lives of people working for an
important advertising agency on Madison Avenue in
New York in the 1960s (hence the name ‘Mad Men’).
However, the advertising industry has progressed and
developed in many ways since then. Here are some examples of how things are different today.
1_______________
Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce is the fictional name of Mad Men's advertising agency and the
action revolves around its creative director, Don Draper. All of the agency’s work is heavily
dependent upon Draper’s creative talent and he is constantly called upon to save the day. However,
his ability to instantly solve advertising problems single-handedly does not reflect what happens
nowadays. In fact, advertising agencies are made up of different teams that work together and most
projects are part of one massive and coordinated campaign. The fate of a real-life campaign rarely
lies in the hands of one individual.
2_______________
Mad Men is well-known for its improvised ‘pitches’ (presentations to potential clients) that seem
to come out of nowhere. Often it is Don Draper himself who suddenly manages to effortlessly
transform a vague idea he has had into advertising gold. This portrayal gives the impression that
the most successful approach for pitching a new idea to a potential client is to put off the work for
as long as possible. This could not be further from the truth, however, and in real life it takes a lot
of hard work and creative genius to make a successful pitch.

64
3_______________
The atmosphere at Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce is one where anything goes. From long lunches
to midday naps at in the office, it seems as if there is never anything to be done. In the real world,
an agency’s workload can vary from one extreme to another depending on the client’s demands
and the corresponding deadlines. One week, the team may have more time to play while the next
they have no time to sleep. This is the nature of the job and a great deal of work goes into every
single project, even though there are times when the employees are able to take a break.
4_______________
In Mad Men, the female characters have been carefully researched so that they coincide with the
views of American society at the time. In the 1960s, few women went on to further education, and
those who did often became secretaries or nurses. This situation is reflected at the agency, where
sexism is rife and all but one of the executives is male. The exception, Peggy Olson, is regarded
as an oddball by her colleagues. Fortunately, the situation nowadays has greatly improved
regarding sexism in the workplace. However, still only a tiny percentage of today’s creative
directors are women.
Mad Men is one of the most popular period drama series ever shown on American television. It
has been widely praised for its historical authenticity, visual style, costume design, acting, writing,
and directing and it has won many awards.

Exercise 1: Read the article and match headings A–D to paragraphs 1–4.

A. Leaving it late
B. Gender gap
C. One-man show
D. All play, no work

Exercise 2: Read the article and decide whether these statements are True (T) or False (F).
1. ___ Mad Men is a comedy drama series.
2. ___ Don Draper is portrayed as a hero in the series.
3. ___ A modern advertising campaign involves many people working together.
4. ___ A lot of planning goes into Don Draper’s pitches.
5. ___ The executives at Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce work extremely hard.
6. ___ In a real ad agency there is never time to relax.

65
7. ___ Most of the women at Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce are secretaries.
8. ___ A large proportion of creative directors in advertising agencies today are women

Exercise 3: Read the following statements and decide whether they are Facts (F) or Opinions
(O).

F/O

1. Many people have been introduced to the world of advertising through the American
drama series Mad Men. _____

2. Don Draper, the director of Mad Men, is very creative. _____

3. Things are different today. _____

4. Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce is the fictional name of Mad Men's advertising
agency. _____

5. All of the agency’s work is heavily dependent upon Draper’s creative talent. _____

6. Advertising agencies are made up of different teams that work together. _____

7. Don Draper manages to transform a vague idea he has had into advertising gold. _____

8. To put off the work for as long as possible is the most successful approach. _____

9. In Mad Men, the female characters have been researched before being accepted. _____

10. Mad Men is one of the most popular period drama series ever shown on American
television. _____

Exercise 4: Read the sentences. Underline the part of each sentence that makes it an opinion.

1. Mad Men was an important advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York in the 1960s.
2. The advertising industry has progressed and developed very fast in many ways since then.
3. The advertising campaigns of Mad Men are usually massive and coordinated.
4. Mad Men is well-known for its improvised ‘pitches’ that seem to come out of nowhere.
5. It takes a lot of hard work and creative genius to make a successful pitch.
6. A great deal of work goes into every single project.
7. Peggy Olson is regarded as unusual by her colleagues.
8. The situation nowadays has greatly improved regarding sexism in the workplace.

66